China urges India to stop use of UAV near border area

BEIJING, Dec 7 (APP):China Thursday asked India to immediately stop its activities of using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) near border, and to work alongside it to maintain the peace and tranquility in the border areas.
“Let me point out that the Sikkim section of the Sino-Indian border has been defined and the Chinese side of the border line is China’s territory. The Indian move violates China’s sovereignty and does no good to the peace and stability of the border areas between the two countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Geng Shuang said during a regular press briefing here.
He said the Chinese side has also lodged diplomatic “representations” with India.
Earlier, a Chinese military official said Thursday that China strongly opposes the intrusion of an unmanned Indian aerial vehicle (UAV) into Chinese airspace, with experts calling India’s behavior aggressive and that China will not tolerate its hostility.
The Indian UAV entered Chinese airspace and crashed, with Chinese border troops investigating the drone, said Zhang Shuili, deputy head of the combat bureau of the Western Theater Command’s joint staff department.
“India has infringed on China’s territorial sovereignty, and we are strongly dissatisfied with and opposed to this,” Zhang said.
“We will fulfill our mission and responsibility and defend China’s national sovereignty and security resolutely,” he noted.
“We don’t know how the UAV crashed but there is no denying that India’s UAV is now in Chinese territory. Since the People’s Liberation Army has evidence of Indian’s hostility, India should prepare an explanation,” said Song Zhongping, a military expert.
Using UAVs to spy on China is a nasty and cowardly activity, and the Chinese military should not allowed it to happen again, Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times.
“Normally, we have multiple ways to make a UAV crash, including shooting it down or using electronic interference to misguide it. The Chinese military is capable of defending our sovereignty,” Song said.